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We filmed this as a random first test of Periscope today, but the upload and replay were a fail.
Also a fail: the intro cut out because of the poor internet connection, removing exactly the part where I say this is a test to see if the internet connection will hold out.
Another fail: that I’m so excited “it worked.”
Thought I’d share it anyway.

As Periscope is mobile-native, videos are shot vertically like Facetime and Snapchat. So yes, I know the camera is vertical.

Let us know if you like the idea (the video obviously could use some work) and maybe we’ll try it again. With a few improvements, of course.

Periscope Fail from Amber Black on Vimeo.

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Man changing car battery

(from Amber’s Instagram)

The other day, our borrowed car wouldn’t start. Everyone we know in out neighborhood was away, so Brady had to request a jump from a neighbor we hardly know. When the jump was ineffective, the neighbor gave us the battery out of his own car and told us to just put it back in his engine when we were done. In the villages here, many people have been sharing walls and fences and driveways for generations. I’m kind of addicted.

http://www.houseofblack.org/2015/01/3864/

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Above is my work in progress for the  special Christmas edition of “Chatter”, a local Dallas church’s magazine . Can’t wait to show you the finished piece!! .Also there are two new Christmas cards on the site now.

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from Serious Creatures Instagram:Our day job is working at a home for abused and abandoned kids in Beirut. The situations these kids come from are dire to say the least, and we constantly struggle to for joy and hope surrounded by the evils the world produces. .But these little dudes are teaching me about it constantly because somehow they usually have big smiles on their faces, I am astounded at their resiliency and contentment amidst very difficult circumstances.

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So we’ve been sharing about the – uh – darker sides of where we live, but here’s a recent ode to the other side.

Apparently it took three days to film. But it took me FOUR days to be able to watch it on the internet here. An experience more universally Lebanese than the video itself.

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…looking at his Goodreads account…

B: Well, I’m only 19 books behind on my reading goal.
A: That’s better than me, I’m like 21 books behind.
B: Sluggard.